Saturday, March 02, 2013

Overview
The A26F is a MIDI interface for the Atari, allowing you to sequence chipmusic on a real Atari 2600 console using modern MIDI sequencing software.

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Many thanks go out to Paul Slocum for his amazing work with Atari 2600 music.

Demo Videos

Demonstration of A26F interface

Sequencing and changing notes and instrument sounds

Sequencing drum samples and changing sample rate of playback

Quick Start Instructions
This post marks the release of the Atari 2600 MIDI
(A26F) device, as well as the release of the A26F v100 firmware.

The
code etc for this is open and free to use. Please do not commercialise
this. It is not for making money. It is for making cool chiptune musics.
I encourage you to build one of these. It is easy and shouldn't take
long. I encourage you to hack the code and play and have fun with it. If you would like to make a batch of these available, please get in touch.

The
aim of this post is to cover a simple hardware setup that can
be used to create an A26F interface. This is achieved via an Atari Age
4K cartridge, a 2764 EPROM and a Teensy 2 microcontroller. Other methods
are possible too.

The A26F music interface relies on two pieces of firmware, one for a microcontroller and one for the Atari 2600 console.

Forgive me if I'm a little bit slow, but I am having trouble finding the 2k/4k Atari 2600 PCB that you mention in your parts list. I found the Krokodile Cartridge and the Harmony Cartridge, but no raw 2k/4k PCB like the one you picture.

I am getting a few errors while compiling which means I cannot acquire the hex version. I don't have a Teeny board, just an atmega32. I wish I knew how to correct these, but I am stuck asking for help.

Here are the errors:

A26F_Teensy_100.ino: In function 'void setup()':A26F_Teensy_100:205: error: 'usbMIDI' was not declared in this scopeA26F_Teensy_100.ino: In function 'void loop()':A26F_Teensy_100:234: error: 'usbMIDI' was not declared in this scope